The Italian Renaissance (582-585)

I.Recovery in Western Europe: The Renaissance

• Renaissance is known as a remarkable cultural flowering or "rebirth"
• Painters, sculptors, and architects of Renaissance era drew inspiration from Greek and Roman artists
• Transformed European art greatly

• Rebirth era was 1400-1600
• Italian city-states sponsored Renaissance innovations in art and architecture
• Masaccio (1401-1428) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) were famous Italian artists
• Relied on technique of linear perspective to represent dimensions
• Sculptors like Donatello (1386-1466) and Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) sculpted natural poses

• Simple and elegant buildings
• Well known for dome buildings
  • enclosed large spaces but still open and airy
• Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) reinvented equipment and designs for large dome; oversaw construction of dome in the cathedral of Florence
  • represented wealth in artistic/cultural affairs

• scholars interested in humanities: literature, history, moral philosophy
• deeply commited to Christianity
• Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), 1516 published first edition of Greek New Testament and revised Latin translation

• prefferred the elegant and polished launuage of classical greek and roman authors, as well as the early church fathers.
• Florentine Francesco Petrarca, also known as Petrarch traveled throughout Europe searching for manuscripts of Classical works from 1304 to 1374
• hundreds of previously overlooked latin writings were found in libraries of Italy, Switzerland, and southern France.

• were encouraged to reconsider the Medieval teachings.
• Believed that it was possible to lead a morally virtuous life while participating actively in world affairs.
• The humanist thoughts represented an effort to reconcile Christian Values and Ethics

• The artists of this time put a lot of spice jars, foreign people, and exotic animals in their paintings.
• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola had attempted to mix the teachings of Zoroastrianism, Plato Aristotle, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
• His attempt was not a success.
• however his Oration on the Dignity of Man made many European scholars want to better understand the outside world.
  R.W.